


daggers behind smiles

by experiment



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Brockton Bay, high school in brockton, keep your head down, winslow high school, winslow is a nasty place kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 23:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14629038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/experiment/pseuds/experiment
Summary: High school is- pretty universally- something to dread. Winslow, though. Winslow takes this to new heights, because of course it does. It's Brockton Bay.Taylor isn't worried about bullying; she's got much bigger problems.





	daggers behind smiles

In any high school, there’s one concrete rule: keep your head down and your grades up, and maybe you’ll be able to get out of here and go to college.

 

Winslow just takes that rule to new levels. For me? This rule was tried and true- or, at least, the first part of it. I wasn’t in college yet, after all. 

 

I had a… bullying problem, let’s say, during my middle school experience that was messy all around. The same old story: pushed into lockers, juice dumped on my head, systematic isolation and emotional targeting. I’m pretty sure we all went to different high schools. In Winslow, I’ve kept my head low to the ground; now, it’s not the threat of bullying but of the other consequences that makes me. 

 

Winslow isn’t the safest place on earth, after all. You can keep your head down for the majority of your high school career, but when you make one mistake- offend that skinhead who sits behind you, step on the wrong person’s shoes, walk in on something you shouldn’t… Well.

 

Let’s just say that bullying would be the least of your problems then. 

 

I’ve heard rumors that one of Wards attends Winslow (you have to keep your ears open around here) but that only means that students don’t shank each other openly in class- at least, they don’t often. Anywhere else, though, is free game. The possible threat of one teenage cape doesn’t weigh much with teenagers wearing gang colors and holding a grudge. 

 

So I keep my head down and hope to make it out of this place alive. 

 

Can’t keep your grades too high or too low- attracts attention that you don’t want around here. Gotta keep em in the low As and high Bs range to pass unnoticed. Maybe throw in a C or two to break the pattern. If you want a challenge and can afford it, take online college courses. You don’t have to report those to Winslow’s admin; you can submit a separate transcript to some colleges, and it works out fine. Freshman year I took German I, Japanese I, and Macro. Right now I’m in the middle of Micro, Mandarin I, and Korean I. 

 

You might notice a pattern with the languages I took and am taking. It’s a good idea to know even the rudiments of those languages so you can tell the difference between “Please hand me a pencil” and “I’m gonna shank you in the parking lot after school” if the person dressed in red and green next to you, or the skinhead sitting behind you, says something. 

 

Yeah, in Winslow, you pick up some survival skills that I’m pretty sure they don’t intend to teach you. 

 

The ambulances and police cars in front of the school are an aesthetic at this point. In Brockton Bay, the cops are all crooked, ineffectual, or dead. They look the other way when a kid pulls a knife on another, and only step in when the action’s over. Winslow’s admin is alternatively apathetic or scared to death; the same goes to the teachers. All of us just want to make it back home at the end of the day without critical wounds. So far, I’ve succeeded in that goal by following that one critical rule:

 

Keep your head down, and don’t make waves. 

 

Keep an eye behind you; make sure that you aren’t around the cafeteria at lunch, and stay out of the bathrooms. Don’t walk alone down the hall, but make sure that the path to your next class doesn’t have groups eyeing each other and fingering something in their jackets or up their sleeves. When knives- and sometimes guns- are pulled out, beat it. When you hear gunshot fire, know it’s time to get out of dodge and head back home. 

 

Always, always have an exit strategy. I didn’t, one time, and I still regret it.

 

My names Taylor Hebert, and- well- welcome to Winslow.  


End file.
